Washed Up
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: ·M-21/Tao· This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before. He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as FUN though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary** : This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.

He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as _fun_ though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.

Contains M-21/Tao.

Nano is here! :D

I don't have this fully mapped out so uh, this might stop cold as it reaches its climax, whoops.

I'll be using Chin-mae as M-21's name since that seems to be my default now, haha. I might end up slipping and putting in a M-21 by accident though.

Thanks to Key, hellse-bunny and erokoneko who listened to me try to figure out what to write for WEEKS. XD; And thanks again to Hellse Bunny for the title of the fic. ;w;

Inspired by a prompt by the-story-shards-universe.

* * *

 **Washed Up  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

Chin-mae looked around the dark corridors, waiting by the security room Tao had snuck into. It had only been a few minutes before Tao creeped out again, a wide grin spread across his face as he adjusted his backpack.

"Done!" Tao crowed in a whisper, pumping a fist into the air.

Chin-mae just shook his head, not trying to stop the small wry smile that curled his lips.

"We should have thirty minutes before it resets," Tao said, leading the way further into the aquarium, "which is _more_ than enough time to do what we have to."

"Mmhm," Chin-mae said, following him, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Why did you bring me along anyway?" Tao knew what he was doing (that was why he was doing it in the _first place_ and why he'd been called in to strengthen the building's security system a week ago) and didn't need his help.

Tao's grin widened. "What, you don't think this is a great date?"

" _Most_ people don't consider testing security systems a date." But this was Tao, who didn't think in the same mundane lines as other people.

"And this is way more interesting than some dinner in a restaurant."

That was true; Chin-mae didn't mind eating out, but making it into a huge _event_ wasn't for him. But still, tagging along as Tao did work? And Tao had insisted he _had_ to come with him, not explaining when Chin-mae had asked _why_.

Tao chuckled, waving a hand. "Anyway, it's in case I need backup."

Chin-mae slowed to a stop, frowning at Tao. Wait... That didn't sound like- "They know you're testing their systems, right?"

"Uh..." Tao's eyes flickered and the pause between Tao's response was answer enough.

"Tao!" Chin-mae hissed. "What the hell-" They'd just broken into an aquarium?

Tao stepped towards him and grabbed his arm, his eyes wide and pleading. "Please? I really do need your help with this."

Chin-mae snorted, glancing back in case someone was coming. "No, you don't." Tao had been the one who'd gotten them in and he was the one who'd dealt with the security cameras. All M-21 had done was follow him in.

"Fine," Chin-mae muttered after a sigh, and Tao whooped, pulling him into a quick hug and he returned it. If he left the route Tao had already mapped out, he was sure he would get caught and he did _not_ want to explain what the hell he was doing there. Not that he knew anyway.

"Thank you!" Tao leaned back and the grin was back on his face. "It'll be fine, don't worry — they don't patrol that often around here. And like I said, we'll be in and out. No problems."

Chin-mae had heard that before, but this was different from losing time inside an electronic store.

"C'mon, we're pretty close!" Tao was already off and M-21 sighed, casting one last glance around them and jogged after him.

xOx

"Ta-daaa!" Tao gestured both hands towards a tank, waving them for good measure. The room wasn't like one of the exhibition rooms in the building, made for the public. This was where the animals were cared for away from the public eye.

Chin-mae stared and then turned to stare at Tao. "Are you _serious_?"

Tao bobbed his head. "Yup! He was found in a lake covered in oil just a couple of miles away — he must have gotten caught up in the spill off the coast, picked up in the storm and carried inland. Poor guy."

Chin-mae covered his face and groaned. "It's an octopus." It was smaller than Chin-mae's palm, and didn't seem like it was covered in oil anymore. And it was in a tank that looked close to what Tao had been building for the past week. Ever since he'd returned from his job here. "I thought you were going to get fish!" Preferably _buying them_.

"How could you say you know me if you thought I would be interested in those?" Tao chuckled and turned to the tank, leaning towards it. "Say hi?"

"I'm not going to say hi to an octopus," Chin-mae muttered, eyeing Tao. There was something wrong. Tao was tense, his smile brittle. But why-

[You. You came back?]

What. Chin-mae jerked back a step, twisting around, trying to find the source of the voice. Except there had been an echo to it, like it had been bouncing around side his _head_.

[Ah, sorry. Hello.] One lone tentacle lifted up and waved a curled tip at him.

Tao's shoulders slumped as he let out a long breath. "You can hear him too, can't you?"

Chin-mae swallowed, and gave a curt nod, still watching the octopus, who seemed content to stay where it was. "This is why...?" To check he hadn't lost his mind.

"Yeah." Tao scratched the back of his head. "Think you can see why I wouldn't give you the specific details." Tao brightened. "Though it has to mean we're on the same wavelength."

"Hah." Even now with the evidence right in front of him, Chin-mae wasn't sure he believed it. But just checking if he could hear the octopus wasn't the only reason why Tao had come here.

"You can't steal an _octopus_." What the fuck was he saying — it wasn't the octopus that was the biggest problem. The biggest problem was they'd broken into a fucking _aquarium_ to steal it!"

"No-one else can hear him!" Tao exclaimed, waving his hands again. "So we gotta bust him out."

"Can we-" Because it wouldn't just be Tao looking after the octopus. "-really look after him?"

"Hey, since we can both hear him, he can tell us when he needs something!" Tao beamed. "That's a lot better than people who can't hear him."

"Yeah," Chin-mae said, rolling his eyes. "The people who've learned specifically how to look after sea animals." That made sense.

"Who can't _hear him_ ," Tao stressed. "Can you imagine how lonely that is, being trapped in a box and no-one to talk to?"

"Why do you think I took the night shift?" Chin-mae muttered. Tao swatted his arm, making Chin-mae smirk.

"Not everyone is like you. Okay fine — imagine _me_ if I didn't have access to the internet."

"I think you'd self-combust." Chin-mae eyed him. "Or steal a lot of equipment to make sure you could connect back up." Which was, in some way, exactly what Tao was doing right now.

"Exactly!"

Chin-mae scrubbed at his face again. "You said he'd been covered in oil?" He carried on at the same time Tao nodded. "Then we shouldn't take him." They barely knew how to look after a healthy octopus, let alone a sick one.

[Actually,] the octopus said, and Chin-mae turned his attention to him, [I heard the people said I was in good health.]

Tao punched the air again. "See?"

Chin-mae studied the octopus. "Shouldn't you be getting released soon then?" There wasn't any need to rescue him if he going home soon anyway.

[Ah...] The octopus curled his tentacles under himself, flattening. [I'm not sure where home _is_.]

"You've got instincts, right?" Chin-mae said, sharing a look with Tao. "You'll find it."

Tao scoffed. "I'll dump _you_ in the middle of another continent and see how well you do."

"Humans are different," Chin-mae said, shaking his head. Though it was really birds that had a homing system in them, wasn't it? "And his home is probably somewhere around the oil spill." That narrowed it down a lot.

"Yeah. _Oil spill_." Tao drew the words out for extra emphasis. "Those can take _years_ before they stop affecting the environment!"

...Right.

There was still something there that Chin-mae couldn't put his finger on about how Tao was acting. When Tao wanted something, he went at it full throttle and didn't stop until he got it (including, or especially, Chin-mae), but there was usually a reason for it. It couldn't just be rescuing a sentient animal from loneliness or else their house would have been overrun by any animal that crossed Tao's path.

[Would it make a difference if I said I wanted to go with you?]

Wanting to go with them was one thing, but it was another if they were actually able to look after him _well_.

But Chin-mae knew Tao, and Tao would have done his research.

"Fine," Chin-mae said in a long hiss, opening his arms when Tao threw himself at him, wrapping Chin-mae up in a hug. "But if he gets ill again, we're returning him."

"Yeah." Tao squeezed him. "But he won't! Because I've made the best tank!"

Of course he had.

The octopus had edged his way towards one end of his tank, pressing up against it. [I think someone's coming?]

Chin-mae jerked his head around at the direction the octopus was indicating as Tao took the tape off around the tank. There wasn't a door there, only a large steel sink. But maybe the octopus could sense something, or could feel something through the vibrations in the water.

But that was enough of a reminder of where they were and what they were in the middle of. "Why the fuck did they _tape_ the lid shut?" Chin-mae muttered as he helped Tao get the rest of the tape off. Once it was off, they shifted the lid to squeeze an arm through.

"It's because octopus are smart enough to know how to get out of their tanks," Tao said with a short laugh, setting his backpack down and rummaging through it. "There's a couple of stories - ah, I'll tell ya later. The _important_ thing is some don't make it back in time before they dry out."

Oh.

Tao nodded, pulling out a small plastic tub with holes in the lid. "It's for their own safety." Tao paused, tilting his head as he pried the lid off. "Okay, and it's to stop them from snacking on fish in close-by tanks. It's for everyone's safety."

Lid off, Tao leaned over the tank and dipped the tub in. "Time ta go!"

Tao had only held the tub just below the surface of the water but before Chin-mae could comment, the octopus climbed up the glass and slid into the tub.

"One telepathic octopus, acquired!" Tao closed the lid and wiped his hands dry on his clothes. "And time for us to make a swift exit."

"They're not going to believe an octopus escaped by taking the tape off," Chin-mae muttered as they left the room. But they didn't have the time to put everything back where they should be.

"Well they're not going to know it was us anyway," Tao said, giving him a thumbs up, his other hand curled around the tub, making sure the inside didn't slosh around too much.

"Should people be worried it was this easy to break into a building protected by your security system?" Chin-mae said dryly as they snuck down corridors.

"Yeah, _my own_ security system, so I have the admin password." Tao wrinkled his nose. "I'd be terrible at my job if I didn't have a manual override for whenever someone else touched something they shouldn't."

Chin-mae snorted and continued following Tao through the building.

Chin-mae didn't hear or see anyone else coming as they left, but he couldn't help turning his head at every echo, every squeak.

"S'all right," Tao whispered, peering around a corner. "Like I said: they barely patrol."

"Which is why you're cautious too."

Tao turned back to grin at him. "Hey, I gotta make sure I don't trip over anything in case I drop our friend."

"Then you'd always be looking at the ground."

"Heh, okay." Tao didn't seem put out at being caught in the lie, but they had more important things to worry about.

xOx

"See?" Tao said, closing the door behind them with a definitive click. "No problems."

"Still cameras here," Chin-mae said, casting his gaze upwards, trying to find them. All he got was a face full of rain and he grimaced, wiping at his face. "If anything else, you don't have to worry about him drying out _here_."

Tao chuckled, diving forwards, heading for where Chin-mae had parked the car. "Yeah, you'd think the storm would have blown itself out by now."

They reached the car bringing in as much water as had been in the octopus' tank.

"Brr!" Tao shivered, sliding into the seat with a wet squeak. "We were only out for five minutes!" He ran a hand through his hair and flicked off the excess.

"More than enough time to dump the entire sea on our heads," Chin-mae grumbled, watching Tao reach over to the backseat with the tub in his hands, to the icebox he'd placed there. So much for there being food in there like Chin-mae had assumed.

"I'm gonna put you in here while we're travelling, okay?" Tao said. "I don't want the temperature dropping for you any more than it already has. It'll only be dark for a little while." Once Tao had placed the octopus in the icebox, making sure the tub wouldn't move, he said, "You okay in there?"

[Yes. The container won't be moving any time soon.]

Tao grinned, leaning back for a second before strapping himself in. "Good."

Chin-mae switched on the heating as soon as the car was running and as he drove off, he held his breath, expecting to hear shouting or an alarm behind them.

Nothing.

"Tooold ya," Tao drew out, stretching. "In and out. Easy." Tao looked over his shoulder to glance at the icebox. "So, what do we call you anyway? Do ya have a name?"

Chin-mae frowned as he waited for the octopus to respond. How did...?

[...Takeo,] the octopus said after a pause. [I think that's the only thing I remember before waking up in that tank.]

"Man, that sucks," Tao said, exhaling.

"How are you hearing us?" Chin-mae asked, slowly going over the slick roads. Through the tank and water, and now through the icebox and even more water. It had happened so naturally Chin-mae hadn't questioned it.

[Huh? Why wouldn't I? You're talking to me.]

Tao prodded him in the shoulder. "He's a telepathic octopus, so maybe he's also hearing our thoughts or intentions too."

Chin-mae raised his eyebrows at him, because it was one thing to talk to an octopus, but he didn't want his brain being rooted around in because of it.

"Why?" Tao grinned at him, waggling his eyebrows. "Are you hiiiding something?"

Chin-mae rolled his eyes and nudged Tao's shoulder. "No."

Tao laughed anyway, wrapping his arms around the seat headrest and the sound made Chin-mae relax as he settled back to take them back home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary** : This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.

He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as _fun_ though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.

Contains M-21/Tao.

* * *

 **Washed Up  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

"We're home!" Tao called out as they entered their house, carrying the icebox securely in his arms.

"Welcome back," Chin-mae said, shaking his head, closing the door behind them.

"First things first," Tao said, placing the icebox on the table, "is getting you some light!" Tao opened it up and peered inside. "Still doing okay?"

[Better,] Takeo said, [now that the rocking's stopped.]

"Heh." Tao lifted the tub up as Chin-mae peeled himself out of his wet clothes. "That shouldn't happen again any time soon."

"You going to transfer him over now?" Chin-mae said, balling his clothes up.

"Sorta." There was a wire holder on the edge of the tank that Chin-mae couldn't figure out what it was for and he watched Tao place the tub in the holder.

It was low enough that most of the tub was inside the water, but still high enough that the lip of it wasn't submerged.

"Stay in there for a while, okay?" Tao said to Takeo, holding a hand up. "We gotta make sure the water acclimatised for you so it's not a shock when you go into it."

[Ah, all right.] Takeo spread his tentacles out, the tips probing the plastic. [Hmm...] He spread out further. [That feels nice.]

Tao grinned. "Told ya I'd made the best tank."

"And you're going to catch a cold if you don't change," Chin-mae said, dropping a towel over Tao's head.

"Hah! My immune system is better than that." Tao still started to dry his hair.

It didn't take them long to change into dry clothes, tidying things away, and Tao leaned over the tank to peer at Takeo once he was done. "All warmed up?"

[I think so, yes.] Takeo had a few tentacles curled around the lip of the tub, some of them edged into the tank's water.

Tao stuck his fingers into the different water and nodded. "Yeah, I'd say you're good to go."

Before Tao had finished speaking, Takeo pulled himself over the lip and dropped into the tank. He seemed to drift there, hovering in the centre, before sinking to the bottom and as soon as his tentacles hit the sand, he was exploring.

"What do you think?" Tao asked, watching Takeo. "Is there enough there, or do you want more?"

[I don't even know what's _here_ yet.] Takeo's voice was wry as he lifted up a small hollow tube Chin-mae didn't think he could fit through and tossed it up.

Chin-mae chuckled. "Stop being a helicopter parent."

Tao's face scrunched up. "But Chin-maaae! What if there's something wrong?"

"Then he'll tell us." Hopefully. Takeo seemed straightforward and honest enough from how he'd talked so far.

Tao grumbled, crossing his arms. "Okay." Then he huffed, shaking his head. "Takeo, are you hungry, or do you want to explore first?"

Takeo had latched some of his tentacles around a large rock and had been in the process of tipping it over. [Mm?]

"Do you want food?" Tao tried again.

The tentacles paused, curling and uncurling again. [Oh, hm. I guess I _am_ a little hungry.]

"Then some food is coming right up!"

"Need help?" Chin-mae asked, but Tao waved him back.

"Nah, it's easy."

As Chin-mae heard Tao move around the kitchen, he watched Takeo flow over each of the objects Tao had put inside the tank like, well, water, going from one side of the tank to the other. Once he'd gone around the edge, Takeo settled down, stretching his tentacles out and dragging whatever they touched closer to him to investigate.

"And I'm back," Tao said, holding a small plate of what looked like a couple of frozen shrimp. "I don't have anything live since heh, I didn't know if you'd be coming back with us, but maybe tomorrow?" Tao blinked, then pulled out his phone. "Today, damn. Didn't realise it was that late. Anyway." He dropped the shrimps in one by one and Takeo moved over, catching some before they hit the sand.

The shrimp were drawn into Takeo's underside and nothing was left when Takeo removed his tentacles again.

"I'm going to have to make a list of things to make sure of, won't I?" Tao mused, taking the plate back to the kitchen.

Chin-mae snorted. "I can use the internet." It wasn't hard. "But a list would help." It was better if he didn't have to sift through too much information.

Tao nodded when he emerged again, yawning. "Tomorrow."

...Hm. "Tomorrow," Chin-mae agreed, leading Tao to their bedroom.

xOx

"So we've got a new housemate," Chin-mae said once they were settled in bed. It didn't feel right calling Takeo a pet, not when they could have conversations with him.

Tao pressed his forehead to Chin-mae's shoulder. "Yep."

Chin-mae watched him from the corner of his eyes, before sighing and brushing Tao's hair away from his eyes.

Tao didn't look up at him like he usually did, pressing his head further into his shoulder.

"All right," Chin-mae said, turning towards him, "what is it?"

Tao blinked once and then beamed at him. "Why'd you think there's something wrong?"

Chin-mae gazed at him and Tao's expression didn't change. "Because usually when you got something you wanted, you'd either be up the entire night trying to play with it or just celebrating." The worried hovering didn't count; Tao didn't have the restless energy Chin-mae expected him to have. "I know you."

Tao huffed, turning his head away. "You thought I was going to buy fish."

"That's what _most_ people buy when they're setting up a tank." Chin-mae sent him a dry look, leaning in to press his forehead to Tao's. "What's wrong?" he murmured.

All at once Tao slumped and wrapped an arm around Chin-mae. He didn't say anything straight away but this time Chin-mae kept quiet, letting him gather his thoughts.

"It's just a small thing, you know? But just-" Tao paused and inhaled. "When I first heard him, I thought I'd do some research on how to look after an octopus."

"Obviously," Chin-mae said, one corner of his lips twisting up. Tao knew what he was doing with what he'd put inside it. "And?"

"And..." Tao played with the hem of Chin-mae's top. "A lot of octopus tend to live a year or less when they're in captivity."

...Oh. "Shit," Chin-mae breathed. "That's why it had to be now."

Tao nodded. "He doesn't exactly have a lot of time left. At the size he is, he's probably not _that_ old, but that means only a couple more months, and if his home won't be clean for years..."

"Yeah."

Tao hugged him, Chin-mae returning it. "I just didn't want him to be alone there."

"Then we'd better not be caught because of this or else _we're_ going to be the ones trapped in a small space with no-one else to talk to."

At that, Tao laughed, patting his back. "You doubting my amazing hacking skills?"

"Your job is to _stop_ hackers, not _be_ one."

Tao huffed in Chin-mae's face, making him lean back. "And to know how to stop people, you need to know how to do it, and I'm one of the best!" Tao's smile faded. "And the other thing I was thinking about was, well, he's a telepathic octopus. That's not exactly normal."

Chin-mae shrugged. "As far as we know. It could be we don't know about it because no-one else could hear them."

"But what if it's not?" Tao burst out, whispering. "What if the reason he doesn't remember being in the sea was because he was _never in it_ and he's some government experiment that escaped or something? And that's why he showed up in no place an octopus should be?"

"He was found covered in oil though," Chin-mae said, rubbing slow circles on Tao's back. "That means he's from the sea."

Tao didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Oh. Right." He buried his face in Chin-mae's shoulder with a laugh.

Chin-mae shook his head, smiling. "Go to sleep. You've earned it." And clearly wasn't thinking straight any more after all that worrying.

"'Course I did." Tao grinned at him and then leaned, kissing him. "Thanks for coming tonight."

"Hn. I would be a crap boyfriend if I hadn't." Chin-mae exhaled, turning to lie on his back again. "But tell me the next time you're going to drag me into breaking the law."

Tao chuckled. "I won't need to, because that was the only time it'll happen."

"Unless you lose the internet."

Tao swatted him. "Hey, I _need_ that." He yawned, wriggling a little before stopping again. "Right. Sleep now, then celebrate tomorrow."

"Good plan." Chin-mae wasn't that sleepy, not when his inner body clock was still running on the night shift, but he closed his eyes anyway, hearing Tao drop off beside him.

xOx

Chin-mae woke up and stared at the wall, Tao pressed up against his back, an arm around him.

Hm... Had he dreamed or had he really broken into an aquarium the previous night and helped Tao steal an octopus?

He looked at the clock and grimaced. It had only been a couple of hours since he'd gone to bed, the sun starting to peek into their window; he'd just fucked up his body clock for the night and he was working.

Sleeping more wasn't going to help, so Chin-mae disentangled himself from Tao and headed out their room.

He paused at the tank in their living room, the toys not in the places he remembered them being, a lone tentacle poking out of a castle in the corner.

So he hadn't been dreaming. Chin-mae rubbed his face. Huh.

[Morning!] Takeo slid out of his castle, wandering over to him and holding a tentacle up.

"Morning," Chin-mae said, waving back to him. "Did you sleep well?"

[Mm. It was nice having different scenery to look at after those walls.]

"Yeah, must be nice," Chin-mae said, a little faintly. How long did Takeo really have? If he'd been bored after a week, wouldn't he just be bored again after a week of staring at the same walls here too? But if he'd been alone with no-one else to talk to... "Are you hungry?" It was best if he didn't work himself up too much about it.

"A little, yes." Takeo even bobbed his head, and huh, octopus really did have human reactions. But was that because it was Takeo?

"Give me a minute," Chin-mae said as he went to the kitchen. He made himself toast as he dug out more shrimp from the freezer. "Was the number Tao gave you last night fine?" There hadn't been any left when they'd gone to bed but for all he knew that had been too much or too little.

[It was,] Takeo said, and huh, that was an advantage to someone being telepathic: no need for raised voices to be heard clearly. [And ah, is that his name?]

Chin-mae paused, staring at the plate in his hand. "Oh, huh." They'd been too distracted to actually introduce themselves, and he didn't think he or Tao had called each other by each others' names while they'd been talking in front of Takeo. "Yeah, sorry. He's Tao — I'm Chin-mae."

He heard a soft murmer of Takeo repeating their names, probably to try and remember them.

Chin-mae chewed on his toast as he brought the shrimp over and dropped them into Takeo's tank.

[Thank you.] Takeo zipped up, grabbing two at once and stuffing them in his mouth before chasing the other shrimp around his tank. Chin-mae watched up, just trying to figure out how the hell Takeo moved when all he could see was flashes of tentacles.

Chin-mae looked over at the squeak of a door and Tao was standing in the doorway, yawning. "I'm surprised you're up." Tao tended to sleep whenever he wanted, or more crash after a long session in front of the computer and then sleep like the dead where nothing could wake up until he decided to.

Tao waved at him before shaking his head and grinning at him. "And miss all the excitement?"

"The excitement of eating food," Chin-mae said, finishing his breakfast.

"And you clearly don't know how exciting food can be," Tao declared, meandering in.

Chin-mae snorted. "It's food. I need it because I'm hungry."

Tao waved a finger at Takeo, who followed the movement and then replicated the gesture. "Hm, I wonder if-" He stopped, dropping his head towards the sound of a ringtone.

Chin-mae frowned, doing the same. "Who the hell would be calling you this early?"

"Someone in a different time zone?" Tao said with a shrug. "Wrong number? Hold on." He pulled his phone out his pocket. "What the hell?"

"Who is it?"Chin-mae said, frowning.

"It's the aquarium?"

...Shit. They'd been found that quickly? But if they'd been caught, then why would the aquarium call Tao? Wouldn't they just call the police to bring them in?

"Aaah, shit shit shit," Tao muttered to himself, hopping from foot to foot. He took a few quick breaths in and out and then held the phone to his ear. "Hell-" He winced.

Chin-mae could hear the shouting from where he was standing.

"A break-in?" Though, it shouldn't be that surprising the aquarium wanted to talk to Tao if his security seemed faulty. "Look, my system - _what_?" Tao's eyes widened, his gaze flicking to Chin-mae. What was it? "Someone destroyed one of your rooms?"

Wait. They hadn't done that.

* * *

Perfect ending point, heh.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary** : This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.

He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as _fun_ though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.

Contains M-21/Tao.

* * *

 **Washed Up  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

"Uh, yeah, of course I'll come over to check it out," Tao said, bobbing his head up and down. "Yeah, I'll be over as soon as I can." Tao hung up and leaned a hand on the table, air exploding out of him in a whoosh. "Okay, that — fuck."

Tao lifted his head. "I'm totally not misremembering it, right? We just went in and out."

"Yeah."

[Yes. As soon as you picked me up, you headed out straight away.]

"Okay, good. Not just me then." Tao ran a hand through his hair. "Fuck. Was it us? Did we let them in when I adjusted the security — and does that mean there's something I need to fix in my code _anyway_?" Tao paced, his hands waving in the air.

Chin-mae's attention was drawn back to Takeo, who was perched up on his castle, watching them both. "Takeo..." he said, frowning. "You said you thought someone was coming?"

[I did.] Takeo nodded, and he'd had to lift himself up to be able to do that. [But we didn't see anyone on the way out.]

Hm. Could that have been...?

Tao wasn't slowing down and Chin-mae went over, pulling him into a hug.

Tao struggled for a second before relaxing into him, leaning his head on Chin-mae's shoulder.

Telling Tao to calm down never worked, not when saying that seemed to have the opposite effect, making Tao go into overdrive instead, so Chin-mae didn't. "One step at a time," Chin-mae said. "You need to get dressed and grab something to eat." Preferably without thinking about all the worst case scenarios, but that was unlikely.

"Right. Yeah, I gotta — but what if it's a trap!" Tao burst out instead. "Maybe I _did_ forget something and our faces are all over the tapes and-"

"They would have called the cops instead of phoning _you_ ," Chin-mae said, trying to derail that thought.

"Maybe they want to get revenge on all the damages," Tao muttered.

"Want me to give you a lift then?" Chin-mae said, guiding Tao back to their bedroom.

"Nnng." Tao sighed, and then shook his head. "I _would_ , but that probably wouldn't be the best idea if something _had_ failed and I come in the 'getaway car'."

"I don't think the guy would have been yelling that hard if he was thinking about kicking the crap out of you," Chin-mae said as Tao stripped out his sleep clothes. "That would be too suspicious."

Tao made a face at him as he picked out what to wear. "You would think that. But... Okay, yeah, the best thing would have been to pretend there'd been a small glitch that they wanted me to check out and _then_ catch me unawares while I'm trying to figure it out." Tao exhaled, his fingers tapping his thigh. "Which means we really did pick a time someone else decided to break in and break stuff up."

Tao threw his hands in the air. "Who even goes into an aquarium to vandalise it?"

"Someone who doesn't like fish."

Tao threw his shirt at Chin-mae while a short laugh bubbled out his throat. " _Seriously_ , Chin-mae!"

He caught it before it hit his head, and Chin-mae lobbed the shirt onto Tao's side of the bed. "I am. I can't think why else someone would destroy a room there."

"Ah! Unless it was a cover-up!" Tao slammed the bottom of his fist into his open palm. "They destroyed the room to hide the fact they'd stolen some fish! There's a lot of them that would go for a lot of money."

Tao glanced out the window and grimaced at the rain still thudding against the pane. "Another layer it is then." He shook his head. "Ooor, what if-" Tao's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "-it was actually the government that broke into there and were so pissed off when Takeo wasn't there, they busted up the place!"

Chin-mae groaned, dropping his forehead into his palm. "He's not an escaped lab experiment!"

"That's what they _want_ you to think!" Tao nodded as he zipped up his jumper. "No-one would think it was them because the idea's too obvious!"

"Come on, conspiracist," Chin-mae grumbled, getting a headache from trying to keep up with Tao's jumps in reasoning. "You don't want to keep them waiting."

"You'll see," Tao said, grinning anyway, and it was good to see Tao not panicking as hard as he had been a couple of minutes ago. "Takeo'll be an escaped lab animal and I'll be _right_."

"What do I get if he's not?" Chin-mae said with a smirk as Tao checked what was in his backpack.

Tao looked up at him, pulling a few things out. "What do you _you_ think he is?"

...Uh. Chin-mae's mind blanked, and Tao grinned at him, triumphant.

" _Y'see?_ "

Dammit. What was the most cliche thing he could think of? "A sea prince. Who'd been cursed."

Tao snickered, slinging his backpack on. "All right then. _Whoever_ wins," he said as they left their room, "he gets bragging rights."

"Good enough for m - oof." Tao whirling around and slamming into him to hug him hadn't been that much of a surprise, and Chin-mae returned it, holding him tighter and longer than usual. Tao did the same, his hands grasping at Chin-mae's top. "Be careful, all right?" Chin-mae murmured.

"When am I not?"

"When are you usually?" Chin-mae shot back, his voice wry. "You're usually doing reckless things." That was how they ended up with an octopus in their home in the first place.

"Heeey, hey hey." Tao pulled back to look him in the eye. "You said _careful_ — being reckless is something else. And I'm not reckless," he added, puffing his cheeks out. "I've always got a plan and they always pull through."

"...All right, fine," Chin-mae conceded. They wouldn't have made it out if Tao hadn't made sure everything would work first. "Now go," he said, giving Tao a quick kiss.

"Mmhm." Tao nodded and hurried to change his shoes. "I'll text you every ten minutes; if I don't-"

"That's way too often."

Tao stuck his tongue out at him with a laugh. "Then I'll definitely text you every five minutes to update you on what's happening."

Chin-mae smiled. "Good."

Tao exhaled, his hands tapping around his pockets. "Okay, think I've got everything. Right!" He waved at Chin-mae. "I'll be back soon, see ya!"

[Bye.]

The house rang in silence once Tao had closed the door, and Chin-mae stared at it, finally allowing the worries he'd buried to come to the surface. Takeo being an escaped lab experiment was something for the movies (but did that really matter? They still had a telepathic octopus in their house and he had to come from _somewhere_ ), but that didn't get rid of the fact they might have let in some people in when they'd snuck in themselves.

And now Tao was going straight there to where they could be lying in wait.

Chin-mae lifted his head at the sound of buzzing and he walked over to where he'd left his phone. It was from Tao. [[im still alive!]]

A smile twitched Chin-mae's lips up. [[Good. Stay that way.]] Tao would worry if he didn't reply, and he slid his phone into his pocket to keep it close.

Chin-mae turned to Takeo to check on him and frowned, finding the octopus pressing two tentacles to his head, hunkered down in a way that would say he was in pain if he'd been human.

"You okay?" Chin-mae asked him, going over to peer into the tank.

[I... Yes,] Takeo said, giving him one small nod. [You two think very loud. I could...] Takeo was knotting his tentacles up, twisting them together in restless spirals. [It was a little overwhelming.]

Chin-mae winced. "Sorry about that. Humans..." He cast his gaze over the walls, trying to pick the right words. "We're not used to talking with our minds." And it seemed like there was an etiquette to go along with it.

A soft chuckle. [No, it might be that I need to get used to being able to hear people properly again.] Takeo slid down from his castle, picking out another tube to play with.

"I guess there's no way to give you painkillers," Chin-mae said, watching him.

[I don't think so.] Takeo shook his head. [The pressure's fading anyway.]

Chin-mae eyed the door and sighed. "So it's when we get-" Excited wasn't exactly the right word; excited was something they _hadn't been_ at that. "-stressed you can...feel us more?"

[Hm.] Takeo had started to play with the tube, throwing it up and his tentacles snapping around it again before it reached the sand again. [Yes, that was what was happening. There was so much of _you_ in my head, I couldn't tell you or Tao apart.]

Chin-mae had a hard enough time trying to figure out how Tao was thinking, and that was when he _didn't_ have direct access into his brain, hearing every single jump Tao did.

"Is there a way to help with that?" Chin-mae asked, pulling his phone out to glance at it. Should he tell Tao, or would that distract him in the wrong way while he was working? Later. He would tell Tao later once he was home. Because nothing bad was going to happen and Tao would be fine. Probably chattier than usual, but that would be it.

[I'm not sure...] Takeo hummed, moving onto another toy. [I'm not sure how to do it, if I'm doing it as well.] He sighed, which was interesting, since Chin-mae heard it in his mind and saw Takeo's gill-thing moved at the same time.

"You probably are," Chin-mae said with a shrug, "if this is automatic for you."

[Well.] Takeo moved onto the next toy and hm, maybe they should rotate what toys were in there, as well as getting new ones. He curled one toy and held it close to him, moving slower to the next and picking that up as well. He almost looked like a child dragging around their favourite comfort toys. [I guess there's no way to tell until I meet someone else like me.]

Chin-mae put a little smile on his face at that. "Yeah." The likelihood of that happening was slim, but so was meeting a telepathic octopus in the first place. ...And was there a point in doing that if Takeo knew he was lying?

Takeo didn't call him out on his lie, so he either hadn't heard it, or he was pretending he hadn't. Chin-mae waited a few more seconds and when Takeo didn't say anything, Chin-mae turned his thoughts to other things.

He pulled his phone out and did a few searches. "Hey..." he said, putting his phone away again.

[Mm?]

"Would you want..." Chin-mae frowned, trying to pick the right words. In some ways it felt weird asking, but he couldn't just do it. "Would you want to be handled?" he asked. "If I put my hand in. I wouldn't pull you out the water." He was starting to babble, dammit. He stopped talking, his lips pursed. But he couldn't help but wonder if Takeo really was craving contact with how he was holding the toys, or if he was just attributing how humans acted to the octopus.

Takeo didn't answer for a few seconds, his tentacles curling harder around the toys before loosening again. [Yes, I think I would like that.]

Chin-mae opened up the tank and eased his hand in, not sure if he had to flatten it, but it didn't really matter if it was in water, did it.

Takeo let go of the toys and launched himself over as soon as his hand entered, latching onto Chin-mae's fingers, his tentacles curling around them.

It was a weird feeling, and Chin-mae was sure he could feel every one of Takeo's suckers. He wasn't sure how tightly Takeo was holding his fingers, but the grasp was firm and unshakable. Chin-mae wasn't sure he would be able to pull Takeo off without trouble, especially if Takeo could wrap his unanchored tentacle around the fingers that had just pried him off.

"Is this okay?" Chin-mae murmured, watching him. The sites had said to handle the octopuses but he wasn't sure if petting them on the head counted as that. Or if he would crush Takeo's brain by doing that.

[Yes,] Takeo said, climbing up Chin-mae's hand to rest himself in the centre of his palm. [Thank you.]

He shrugged. "I'm not doing much." But it did seem like Takeo had needed the contact like Chin-mae thought he might.

[You're doing a lot,] Takeo said, squeezing his fingers for a second before loosening his hold again. [You've already done a lot for me.]

It was so weird that Takeo was so thankful towards him, especially when Chin-mae didn't feel like he'd done that much. But then, he wasn't the one that had been trapped without anyone to talk to for a week, or possibly more (and dammit, he wasn't _really_ entertaining Tao's theory, just musing). So to suddenly be able to have contact whenever he wanted...

Chin-mae shook his head, in case he was overwhelming Takeo again.

[Hm.]

Takeo turned an eye towards him, and Chin-mae was sure Takeo was considering something. It was probably from the way he was flexing his tentacles around Chin-mae's fingers.

[If you're worried about me hearing your thoughts, I could try to teach you how to shield them?]

"I thought you weren't sure how you did it?"

Takeo had begun winding through Chin-mae's fingers, squeezing himself through the gaps that Chin-mae hadn't thought he could fit through. [And the only way to find out is to try.]

"Heh, sure." Chin-mae waggled his fingers, giving Takeo something new to fit through after each loop. It would keep him occupied until Tao came home.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary** : This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.

He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as _fun_ though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.

Contains M-21/Tao.

* * *

 **Washed Up  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

Tao's heartbeat was beating harder in his chest with every step he took towards the aquarium. He was going to be fine. Completely fine. This entire thing was going to go smoothly and he would walk straight out again.

Should.

Maybe.

Tao's stomach was crushing itself, like it was trying to wring every scrap of food he'd eaten in the last day and force it out of him. But at least he didn't feel sick. And he probably shouldn't have thought that.

Right. One step at a time. That's what he had to do. Take it one step at a time.

He already knew the exit routes he could take and the codes to certain doors, so he already had an escape plan if he needed it.

Hopefully he wouldn't.

There didn't seem to be any problems when he got in, not when Hyun-woo was right there waiting for him at the front door and Tao was led through the building.

"About time you got here," Hyun-woo grumbled, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Hey, I may be a computer wizard, but there's not much I can do about traffic." Especially when the storm _still_ wasn't letting up, and it must have been a week now since it started.

There were a couple harried people rushing about, but that was about it as far as Tao could see. No-one spared them a second glance, not that Tao expected one, and they had to have been busy with the trashed room.

"Bet you didn't expect to be back so soon."

Tao chuckled, and he was sure the sound was an octave higher than it usually was. So long as Hyun-woo didn't know that, he'd be fine. It wasn't noticeable. "Yeah, I don't _want_ to return to a place once I'm finished; it means I've done my job."

"Apparently you didn't this time."

Tao winced. "Yeah," he murmured. He shook his head. He was being too quiet. "And I'm gonna get to the bottom of this!" This was both personal pride at stake, and finding out what the _hell happened_ last night.

"We found out _when_ it happened," Hyun-woo said, "but the how-"

"Is my job," Tao finished, lips twitching. "Which is why I'm here."

There were more eyes on Tao once they entered the security room, but no-one from the night before as far as Tao could tell. "Hey, a couple new faces." Tao grinned and waved. He got a few nods in return, and he walked over to where the wall of cameras were. There was a guard sitting in front of it, frowning over one particular screen.

Tao squinted at it and then blinked. It was the room he and Chin-mae had been in the previous night. The timestamp in the corner said it was just before midnight and Tao broke out into a cold sweat, watching the seconds tick by.

Oh, fuck oh fuck oh _fuck_. Was this it? Had he been right? Had he just been brought in to reveal he was the culprit before getting ganged up on?

The door was on the other side of the room, but there were at least four bodies between him and it and there was no way he would be able to dodge every single one of them.

The hair at the back of his neck prickled, and Tao stared at the room, keeping his eye on Takeo. All that should have shown up was the tape that moved to the top of the tank and Takeo going missing. That was it. He eyed the bottom left corner of the screen — that was where the door he and Chin-mae had entered through, so if anything showed up there, he had to bolt.

When had they left anyway? They'd gotten home after midnight, but the roads had been dead (just like he was going to be in a few minutes, and brain, _shut up_ ) and-

Tao jerked, his eyes widening.

His jaw dropped open. "The hell-?"

When he'd been told the room had been trashed, they _meant it_. The camera angle could see at least four different tanks of varying sizes, Takeo's right next to the large sink that was probably there to help wash affected animals.

They were all _gone_ between one frame and the next, the floor flooded with water, the taps on the sink ripped out that steady streams of water were gushing out of them. That wouldn't have been enough to save the fish on the ground, most of them still flopping about in an attempt to keep breathing.

A few minutes. That was all that the cameras had missed the intruder by. If Tao had set his timer just a couple of minutes less, then they could have seen who had done all this.

Had he really allowed the intruders in? The other option was there was a fault in his system and _that_ wasn't true, so... Shit.

How close had it been? How close had it been to _him and Chin-mae_ lying there alongside the dying fishes?

If Takeo hadn't hurried them along... Shit. He had to keep his breathing under control, he was starting to breathe too quick and too shallow.

"Daaamn," Tao drew out, trying to keep his hands unclenched. "That's a lot of damage." His voice sounded like a squeak to him, and if he could just pretend that was from shock at the destruction rather than the _sheer terror_ at the fact he'd been so close to death the night before. "Do you know why they did it?"

"They're fucking vandals," Hyun-woo said with a sneer. "They just wanted to 'make their mark'."

"How many rooms were destroyed?" Tao asked, glancing at the other cameras. The rooms on screen seemed untouched.

"Just this one."

Tao paused, and then turned to look at him. "What? Seriously?" But... That room wasn't anywhere near the exits or entrances. Why would someone go specifically to _that room_ just to bust it up when there were a ton of other places they could have gone to first? Especially the shop.

This was too...mediated. There was too much focus.

"What about the fish?" Tao asked, trying to make them out as the fishes' struggles lessened. "Were any of the fish stolen?" What was the _reason_ for this?

"Most of them are accounted for," Hyun-woo said. "The only one that's missing is the octopus, and well." He grimaced. "He could have been taken -though I'm not sure why- or he squeezed himself into a nook and died there."

"Oh." Tao turned his attention back to the cameras, looking through them again. Nothing had been taken, so the only reason for that was to specifically destroy that room?

What if... Tao tapped a finger on the back of the chair. What if whoever had done that had done it to protect him and Chin-mae, to hide what they'd done?

But how could they have _known_ what he was planning?

"Hmm," Tao hummed. "Maybe I'll be able to find something once I take a look." He wouldn't. That was the problem. For him to find out who did it would mean he would have to expose himself and Chin-mae, and no way was he going to do _that_ either.

"Then we'll leave it to you."

The guard in the chair stood up and yelped when he passed Tao. Startled, Tao took a step back.

"Jeez," the guard said, shaking a hand in the air. "You have to be a real security technician if you've collected that much static electricity in you."

"Thaaat would be a bad thing for me," Tao said, sliding into the chair after him. Ground himself, find metal. Oh right, the chair. "I'd end up frying all my equipment if I collected electricity like that," he said, touching the metal part of the chair. "And that would be the opposite of what I wanted." Frying any of his equipment would _suck_ to replace.

"Heh, fair enough."

Tao listened to the guards milling about behind him, talking about their day and okay. He could do this. He took a few calming breaths and then started pretending he was trying to find out what had happened. 

xOx

Tao turned onto his street, sending one last text to Chin-mae, keeping it in his hand once it was sent.

He'd survived. That was the main thing. And he survived with no-one at the aquarium any wiser about what had happened (and been given a discounted payment for it too). Not bad considering all he'd been doing was just tidying up a few things. Not that they would know that.

He hadn't found anything to suggest how the other people had gotten in or tricked his system though and he'd spent _hours_ poring over everything, trying to find one weak spot. He hadn't.

So that meant he'd let them in.

Shit.

The only thing that could make it worse — Tao checked his phone when it buzzed and breathed a sigh of relief. Chin-mae and Takeo were fine. Chin-mae was still responding to his texts (unless that was someone else, but Tao was sure he could tell when someone was trying to impersonate him) so he was still alive.

That reassurance didn't stop Tao from expecting to see his front door kicked down and its contents strewn everywhere. But the door was locked and when Tao poked his head in after opening it, he could hear Chin-mae moving around.

"Hey," he heard Chin-mae say and for the first time since he'd walked out, Tao relaxed, everything coming out in a whoosh. He stayed at the door after he'd closed it, just leaning on a wall, until Chin-mae came through, a concerned look on his face.

"Not dead," Tao said with a weak smile, and Chin-mae went over to him.

"Yeah, I can see that." Chin-mae nudged his elbow, but didn't try to herd him anywhere. "I made tea."

"You're the best, you know that?" Tao said, leaning on Chin-mae instead. He made a much better rest, especially when Tao could feel his breathing, feeling that he was really _there_.

"I have to be to keep up with you."

Tao chuckled at that, just basking in Chin-mae's presence. "You admit I'm the best?"

"You're saying you're not?"

Tao grinned. "Of course I am!" Taking in a deep breath, he straightened and stretched, hearing a couple joints crack. "So it was a fun ride," Tao said, taking his shoes off. "They didn't suspect me but..." He blew air through his teeth. "You were right," Tao said. "We almost ran into them by a few minutes by the looks of it."

Chin-mae sucked in a breath and Tao nodded.

"Sooo yeah." Tao brought out the bag of crabs he'd bought. "Here's my thank you, Takeo."

[Eh?] Takeo swam over to them, studying the bag. [But I didn't-]

"If you hadn't told us to get our butts in gear..." The image of the room flashed in Tao's mind again. "They hadn't let me anywhere near it but the security camera was enough." A shiver rippled up his spine just thinking about it.

[What happened?]

"They smashed up the entire room," Tao said, dropping the crabs into the tank. "Glass and water _everywhere_. And the _best_ thing is, nothing was taken. They just went into the room to destroy everything in there and then left."

Chin-mae's eyebrows shot up. "That's...interesting."

Tao nodded. "Right? The only thing missing was an octopus."

[...Oh.] Takeo grabbed one of the crabs but didn't eat it immediately like he had with the shrimp. [Then, if you hadn't rescued me when I had...] Takeo's tentacles were curling up under him. [You saved my life.]

Tao blinked and peered into the tank. Damn, he'd been so distracted about what could have happened to him or Chin-mae, he hadn't thought about what that would have meant for Takeo.

He smiled at Takeo. "We saved each others' lives, so we're even."

A light exhale. [Yes, we are.]

Tao squinted at Takeo, then glanced at Chin-mae, who gave him a questioning eyebrow raise. That almost sounded like Takeo was going to invoke some kind of life debt or something. Like he was a sea prince.

Well, if Chin-mae hadn't picked up on it, Tao wasn't going to bring it up. Because Takeo was most likely an escaped lab experiment.

"Time to get out of these wet clothes," Tao said, picking at them. The house was warm, but not _that_ warm.

"When you're done, be ready to learn," Chin-mae said, his voice wry, and Tao paused, glancing back at him.

"Huh?" What would Chin-mae think he needed to learn? Chin-mae hadn't mentioned anything recently, had he...? Or was this something to distract him?

Tao looked over at Takeo waving at him. [You're ah...]

"Loud," Chin-mae finished for him, leaning back against the wall next to Takeo's tank. "We both are."

Tao blinked. They hadn't been yelling earlier — okay, he might have been, but he was fairly sure he hadn't been and if he hadn't been yelling, then how else had he been...loud... Tao studied Takeo and then dropped his jaw open. "Oooh, you mean like-" He waved his hands towards his head. "You can hear our thoughts?" Which Takeo had said earlier, and Tao's thoughts had _not_ been quiet in the morning that was for sure.

Takeo bobbed his head. [Yes.]

And by lesson that had to mean- Tao beamed. "You're going to teach me how to quieten them?"

Another bob of the head. [It seemed to work with Chin-mae so I think I understand it better now.]

"You already did it with Chin-mae?" It wasn't that surprising seeing how long Tao had been away. And if Chin-mae got a lesson, there was no way Tao would decline getting the same treatment. Not that he was going to anyway.

"All right then!" Tao gave him a thumbs up. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes," he said, before dashing to the bedroom. 

xOx

Chin-mae looked at where Tao had disappeared through for a few seconds before glancing at Takeo again. Tao could have been a lot worse but for the moment, he seemed fine for the moment.

"How many times did you eat today anyway, Takeo?" Tao asked a few minutes later, looking a lot less like a drowned cat when he re-emerged.

[I didn't count,] Takeo said, [but Chin-mae gave me food often enough I wasn't hungry.]

"I told you I could do internet searches," Chin-mae said, snorting. It hadn't been hard to look that up and at least he could check with Takeo whenever he wanted food.

"I know you can, but you know... Oh!" Tao jerked like he'd been startled, and then he grinned. "Now I can make up that list!"

Good. If Tao was starting to think of that, that meant he wasn't as worried anymore.

"But-" Tao said, clapping his hands, "that'll be after learning how to shield my thoughts. Your student is ready to learn, teacher," he said, leaning in to wave his fingers at Takeo.

Chin-mae didn't stop his small smile as Takeo folded his tentacles and started teaching a rapt Tao.

He settled down to listen as well, to make sure he had all the basics down.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary** : This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.

He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as _fun_ though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.

Contains M-21/Tao.

* * *

 **Washed Up  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

Chin-mae cocked his head as he returned home from work. It wasn't weird to hear Tao still milling about when he came back but that was usually after Tao had spent most of the day asleep. A small smile on his lips when he heard Tao's laugh.

He entered and stopped, staring at the scene in front of him.

"Hey, Chin-mae!" Tao said, and Chin-mae just caught the movement of his wave, but that wasn't what had his attention.

"Did you sleep at all?" Chin-mae said, taking his jacket off, putting it on the hanger.

"No..." Tao said with a weak laugh.

Obviously. Chin-mae went over and crouched next to the mini-tank on wheels Tao seemed to have built in the space of one night; Chin-mae hadn't hadn't seen it before and all the bits and tools scattered around the floor confirmed Chin-mae's thoughts. On one end of the tank, going under and attaching to the wheels was a thick rope, making it look like a tug-tank.

[It kept him distracted,] Takeo said, moving around the bigger tank before pulling himself up to above the surface of the water.

"Yeah," Tao said, his voice wry, "he was doing that enough that I thought it would be cool if he _didn't_ dry himself out trying to see everything in the room. And this way," he said, putting his hand into next to Takeo, "he doesn't just have the tank to explore and he can see new things!"

After Takeo latched onto his fingers, Tao carried him to the mini-tank and Takeo started exploring straight away, poking at a couple of the toys Tao had transferred over. "Is the temperature okay?"

Takeo nodded, swimming around again.

"But just." Tao shook his head. "Don't scare me like that. I don't want you to dry yourself out just 'cause you got curious."

[I'll be fine,] Takeo said, playing with a toy that looked like a before swimming again. [I don't do it for long and I'll be able to feel when something's going to happen.]

"Yeah, that's what Tao says before he collapses too," Chin-mae said, snorting. He eyed Tao, because right now would have been those moments.

"I do no-!" Tao's eyebrows raised and he chuckled weakly, rubbing the back of his head. "Not _every_ time," he corrected.

"Only because I dragged you to bed before you did." It was to the point Chin-mae could recognise the signs before Tao was about to collapse.

"But still. We won't always be around," Tao added, shaking his head. "No sticking your head out if both of us are out."

Takeo turned to look at Tao. [Of course.]

Chin-mae smirked. "You're still being a helicopter parent."

Tao made a face at him. "Fine fine, I'll step back but it's better if we made sure we knew all this before something goes wrong, right?"

"Now I can show you the rest of the house!" Tao said after Chin-mae nodded, starting to tug the mini-tank by the rope.

Chin-mae left them for the moment, heading to the bedroom to change while they were distracted.

xOx

"And I think that's most of the house," Tao said, plopping himself down next to the window. The sun was still trying to make its way through the clouds, . He wasn't sure if he was still making sense but it _seemed_ like he was. Chin-mae had went to bed a while ago but Tao hadn't felt tired enough to sleep at the time, but now...

He stared at the rain for a few seconds before leaning over to lift Takeo's tank up and set him down on the windowsill. That done, Tao folded his arms under his chin, resting next to Takeo.

"It's been raining like this for aaages," Tao said. "It'd be nice to have a change of scenery once in a while." Even just a day. "Everything's so waterlogged now." He blinked, then looked at Takeo. "Though I guess this is perfect weather for you."

[I can empathatise with wanting something different,] Takeo said, looking out the window. [What's it like normally?]

"Not grey," Tao said with a laugh. "But I guess it depends on the weather, but yeah, it'd be nice to not be cold and wet as soon as you walk outside." Especially when Tao had to worry about his equipment getting wet, even though he'd made sure to waterproof everything. One mistake could cost him.

[Yes, it would be...]

Tao glanced at Takeo. It was one thing to make Takeo something to help see more of the house (and it would good to know Takeo being able to see more), but it was another to take him outside. Maybe if he carried him... But he wouldn't be able to maintain the needed temperature outside.

Takeo turned and started swimming around his tank again. [Aren't you tired?]

Tao grinned. "You getting on my back like Chin-mae now?" Though he probably _should_ go to sleep now... "Aren't you tired too? You've been up the entire day like me."

Takeo went up to the side of the tank closest to Tao to look at him. [Chin-mae and I had naps.]

Tao burst into a short laugh, and okay okay, now he really should go to bed. "That's fair enough."

[Hm...] Takeo pressed two tentacles up against his tank, staring at the rain. [There's something about the rain...]

Tao shifted to look at him. "What about it? Are you remembering something?"

Takeo nodded. [But I'm not sure what...]

"Eh, don't force it," Tao said, waving a hand, yawning. "If it comes to you, it'll come to you."

"But I'll just take a short nap here," Tao said, yawning again. "It's no good if I ended up dropping you while taking you back to your tank."

Just. A few minutes. That's all he needed...

xOx

Chin-mae woke up alone. "Dammit," he said, rolling out of bed. Maybe he should start dragging Tao to bed whenever he did.

He walked through the house and found Tao curled up by the window, Takeo still in his tank, staring at the rain. Chin-mae sighed. At least Tao hadn't fallen asleep in front of his laptop again.

"Takeo?" he murmured, walking over. How long had Tao been asleep for? It couldn't have been that long or Takeo would have woken one them up if the temperature of his tank was getting too low. ...Right? Or would Takeo had thought that would have been rude? "Still alive?"

Takeo swam around to greet him, popping his head above the tank. [Yes. Tao fell asleep,] he said, his voice wry.

"I noticed," Chin-mae said, giving him a small smile. "Don't worry, he does that. How are you feeling?"

[Fine,] Takeo said, swimming around again before stopping to look at the window again. [Though I'm feeling a little hungry...]

Chin-mae nodded, turning to the kitchen.

Takeo was still staring out the window when Chin-mae came back with a place of shrimp. "Something wrong?" He hadn't seen Takeo that focused on something since they'd first met. Everything was focused on the rain, not even a tentacle twitching as Takeo stared up at the window.

Takeo didn't answer, turning away from the window to eat the shrimp. Once he was done, he listlessly played with a few toys, tossing them across the tank with a flick, but he didn't follow the movement like he usually did. [This...feels wrong,] Takeo said, tentacles twisting up against each other.

Oh. Damn. Chin-mae pulled up a chair to sit down next to Tao. "The tank?" That was the hopeful answer, but he doubted it would be that easy. If Takeo didn't like being in captivity... Well. "Do you want to go home?"

[Huh?] Takeo span to stare at him. [No,] he said, shaking his head, [that's not what I meant.] He picked up another toy and and threw it up, following it and his tentacles snapped out and grabbed it after it hit the sand. [It's _this_. It doesn't...] He curled his tentacles around it, bringing it close to him. [It doesn't feel right,] he finished, his voice soft.

"Like..." Tao murmured, lifting his head a little, "you're cursed? Mmnf, mornin'."

Chin-mae couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes, catching Tao's eye when he was done. It wasn't going to be that. Neither of them were going to be right.

[Cursed? What do you mean?]

Tao yawned, nodding as he sat up. And ended up leaning back on Chin-mae anyway. Well, that was better for his back at least. Tao reached over and put his hand into Takeo's tank and Takeo swam into it. "Like, cursed," Tao said, lifting him out. "Someone put a spell on you to change you. Maybe made you lose your memory too."

Takeo spread out over Tao's palm, tentacles curled up around each finger. [How do you break the spell?]

"There's _one_ way-!" Tao said, grinning and Chin-mae realised what he was going to do just before he did it.

"Tao-!"

"True love's kiss!" Tao declared, bringing Takeo up to his lips. "Mwa!"

Before Chin-mae could say anything, Tao toppled back with a cry and Chin-mae scrambled back as _something_ suddenly occupied the space in front of Tao.

Eyes wide, Chin-mae stared.

Tao was on his back on the ground. That wasn't what he was staring at. There was human _oid_ on top of Tao, legs straddling Tao's hips, hands braced at Tao's head. Hands that were claw tipped. Hands that were the same colour as the rest of the slick skin (like they'd just came out of the shower and oh _fuck_ ). An almost turquoise on the top, and Chin-mae could see enough that they were a paler blue on the inside. Like a killer whale. They had long purple hair that reached splayed out over the ground, long enough it probably reached their calves.

From his angle, Chin-mae could see the gills at the side of their - his neck. Because Chin-mae couldn't see an octopus moving around. The gills were moving, like he was a fish trying to breathe in air and shit!

"Can you breathe?" Chin-mae demanded, scrambling to his feet.

Takeo snapped his attention to Chin-mae and he had the brightest blue eyes Chin-mae had ever seen. They were almost all iris with no pupils, and it was like they were glowing from within.

[What?] Takeo's gills settled down, resting against his skin, leaving only two slits at the side of his neck. [I'm fine.]

But... His gills. And it was Takeo's chest that was moving, in and out.

"Okay. Good." Chin-mae flopped back to the floor. Now that he wasn't worried about what had just happened or Takeo suffocating, he could take in Takeo's appearance more.

He would be taller than Chin-mae by the looks of it when he stood up, and it was like someone had tried to make the image of a human from a picture taken underwater. Takeo was recognisable as human, but apart from his eyes, his nose was flatter to the point it was hard to distinguish it from the rest of his face. His lips were the same, just enough there to see them, but that was it.

"You're a merman?" Tao strangled voice broke Chin-mae's attention. "That _worked?_ " Tao's head thumped against the floor as his whole body shook with laughter.

* * *

I can now finally reveal the prompt by the-story-shards-universe that inspired this entire fic, haha.  
'"I can honestly say that I did not expect our trip to the aquarium to end like this."  
"You mean you didn't expect to hide in the bathrooms until everyone had left just so we could help a cursed mermaid escape? What kind of date did you think I was taking you on?"  
"Weren't they a merman?"  
"They're cursed into the form of an octopus. It's kind of hard to tell."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary** : This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.

He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as _fun_ though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.

Contains M-21/Tao.

* * *

 **Washed Up  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

[I...should get off,] Takeo said, and Tao snickered, nodding.

"Yeah, you're a little heavy."

Takeo hefted himself up, and he was stockier than a swimmer, not as defined, but Chin-mae had a feeling he would beat anyone in a race in the sea.

Takeo didn't move for a few seconds, his head cocked to the side like he was listening to something and. Right. Clothes. Takeo hadn't been wearing anything when he'd transformed but Chin-mae had been too distracted by _everything else_ to worry about that.

He headed for the bedroom to find a few things that should fit Takeo as Tao rolled to his feet. He heard the hiss of the blinds getting closed when he was in the bedroom.

Takeo had started walking around with the kind of uncertainty of if his legs would hold him, but he didn't seem to be in any danger of falling over any time soon.

"Here," Chim-mae said, holding out the pile of clothes in his arms to him.

Takeo blinked at them, before ducking his head to look at himself. [I suppose I stand out like this,] he said, his voice wry, and huh, he was still using telepathy to talk. But that made sense — it would be hard to use vocal speech under water, unless he sang like whales. And if he did, there was no way Chin-mae and Tao would be able to understand him.

"You do a little," Tao said, tidying the mini-tank away, emptied of water. "It's a human thing to wear clothes?" He shrugged.

[I noticed.] Takeo took the clothes from Chin-mae and huh, he had webbing between his fingers that went up to just below where his claws started. [I can get used to them.]

Chin-mae looked away as Takeo changed after it was obvious Takeo could figure out how to put the clothes on without help.

"Why did that work?" Chin-mae mused, to distract himself, because what the hell. That didn't make sense.

"Because it's the power of true love's kiss!" Tao said, cackling.

"Right," Chin-mae said, rolling his eyes.

[Why couldn't it be?] Chin-mae turned to find Takeo had put on the trousers and shirt well enough, but he hadn't done up any of the buttons, the shirt hanging loose.

"Because..." Chin-mae trailed off, doubt rising as he frowned, studying Takeo.

"Well, the prerequisites for it to work are _supposed_ to be both people love each other," Tao said, resting his chin in his palm, "but it tends to be the only person doing the kissing loves the kissee since the kissee isn't...always available."

Tao blew the air through his teeth. "But. Yeah. It's meant to be a kiss between two people who love each other."

Takeo blinked. [I see.] Then he scrunched up his eyes and shook his head.

"Hey, you all right?" Tao said.

[I...think I remember more,] Takeo said, and Tao straightened, grinning.

"Yeah? Like what?"

Takeo was staring out the window again, and he walked over to it, like he was in a trance. [I think that's my father trying to call me home.]

Chin-mae stared at Takeo, and then out the window as Tao spluttered.

"Your dad can control the weather?"

Takeo nodded. [It was something he used to do when we were away for too long and he was worried.]

"He called up a _storm_ just to call you back?" Chin-mae said, his eyebrows raised.

[Mm. Our voices only carry so far, so feeling the change from the weather was enough to call us back.]

"But like..." Tao tilted his head towards the storm. "What if it was just a regular storm?"

Takeo shook his head. "We're attuned to water — we can tell the difference between a natural storm and one created by our father."

Oh. "And that's what this is," Chin-mae said. A _magical_ storm.

"Damn," Tao muttered. "No wonder it hasn't blown itself out yet." Then he peered at Takeo, and Chin-mae could see him fighting to keep a grin off his face. "So your dad's powerful, huh?"

[Yes. He's the guardian of the sea.]

...Wait. Chin-mae covered his face with a groan, but he was too slow, already seeing the gleeful look on Tao's face.

"So," Tao said, and dammit, he should cover Tao's mouth _right now_ , "does that make you a _prince_?"

[...Yes?]

Tao burst out laughing again, though not as hard as he had earlier. "Looks like you were right, Chin-mae!"

"I wasn't being-" Chin-mae cut himself off with a strangled sound. He hadn't been serious and tried to make the most ridiculous guess he could and he was _right_?

"So!" Tao said, clapping his hands once, his grin as wide as he could go, and dammit, Chin-mae _knew_ that look. Tao had an idea and he wasn't going to be swayed from it. "If yer dad's looking for you, we'd better go get prepared to help you get to him!"

Takeo's eyes widened. [Eh? You're going to-]

"Of course we are!" Tao heafted himself up to sit on the window and was swinging his legs. "We already busted you out of an aquarium, so going on a trip to the sea is _easy_."

In comparison to what they'd already done, accompanying Takeo really wasn't that much. But... Chin-mae narrowed his eyes at Tao. "How are we getting there?" There wasn't much point trying to dissuade Tao once an idea had firmly settled on an idea, only to help him work with it.

"The train would be the fastest way way there," Tao said, nodding. "And that way, we'd be back home in the same day." Tao chuckled. "Or we could stay the night there — been a while since we took a trip, heh."

Chin-mae sighed. This was why Tao needed someone with him once he'd started getting excited by an idea. "Tao. That's not going to work."

Tao blinked at him, his eyes wide. "Eh? Why not? We could even go-"

"You're forgetting we're going to be with Takeo."

Tao frowned, then looked back at Takeo. "...Oh, right," he said with a soft laugh, covering his face with a hand.

[I don't look like you that much,] Takeo said, smiling, and there was a hint of sharp fangs behind his lips.

Tao snickered, waving a hand in the air. "Yeeeah. I mean, we could get make up to help conceal your skin but..." Tao frowned, studying Takeo. "I'm guessing you're not like a frog that breathes through their skin, but hm. And we could find contacts for you too, but thaaat probably won't be comfortable."

[What are contacts?]

"They're things you put in your eyes-" Tao stopped when Takeo flinched back. "Yep, no contacts, gotcha. Sunglasses would help too!"

"And if they get knocked off?" Chin-mae shook his head. There was too many chances of something going wrong if they took the train. "We can take the car," Chin-mae said, dryly. "We'd still be able to be back in one day, or we can wait until I'm off work. That way we've got a couple of days to prepare." And even with the lists Tao was going to make up, that was still going to take some time.

"Hmm, good point." Tao brought his hand to his chin, tapping his cheek. "We'd probably need a couple things to cover up the windows too, because that would be a lot easier than wrapping Takeo up, hm."

Chin-mae watched Tao for a few seconds, seeing him formulate a few plans before saying, "Go to bed," as he shook his head.

Tao scrunched his face up. "Aww, come on, I can't go to sleep _now_ when I've got all this planning to do!"

"Yes, you can," Chin-mae said with a snort. "How much did you sleep just now? You're probably going to fall flat on your face soon."

"But I'll have _done_ some work!"

"And maybe drooled over it too."

"I'll still have it saved," Tao grumbled.

Takeo tore his gaze from the window. [I may have been missing for a few days, but my father can wait a few more hours or days for me to return.]

"There, see?" Chin-mae said. "Now go sleep."

Tao groaned, his shoulders slumping. "Aw, Takeo, I thought you'd be on my side!"

[I wouldn't want you to collapse because of me.]

"Wouldn't," Tao grumbled as he staggered off towards the bedroom, and that was proof enough that the lack of sleep was catching up on him already.

Chin-mae heard the creak of bedsprings and turned to Takeo. "What about you?" Then he blinked, glancing at the tank Takeo used to occupy. Obviously, he didn't need that anymore. "You can sleep on the couch if you want."

Takeo shook his head, pulling up one of the chairs to sit on as he continued to stare out the window. [I've slept enough already.]

Chin-mae had the feeling Takeo wasn't talking about resting. "All right," he murmured, turning to go get ready for work.

xOx

Takeo was still staring out the window when Tao woke up again, and hm. "Hey, are ya hungry?" Takeo looked drier now at least.

Takeo shifted to look at him, then nodded.

Tao beamed at him. "All right! I'm not sure if-" Tao opened the fridge and there were a lot more bags in there. "Okay, Chin-mae went shopping before leaving." He lifted his head to call out, "Do you cook your food, or do you have it raw?"

[Raw, thank you.]

"Got it." Well that made it easy to prepare. Tao hummed as he got his own food and brought it all out to Takeo, bringing along his laptop as well.

Takeo's attention was back on the window and maybe they should hurry up them going if Takeo was like this. He had to be homesick.

[There are still things missing,] Takeo said, pushing himself away from the window to walk over to Tao. [I _know_ there's more, but I can't seem to reach them.]

"Give it time," Tao said, digging into his food and opening up his laptop. "I guess it wasn't the curse that made you forget." Even saying that made Tao warmer inside. They still had no idea how it happened, but he'd broken a curse! Now if they could figure out how to get Takeo's memories back...

[Clearly.] Takeo pulled his hair away from his face, settling it behind his shoulders and Tao blinked, seeing his lack of ears.

...Huh, sunglasses wouldn't have worked either. Not unless he got one of straps that held onto the glasses legs that pinned them to the head.

[What are you doing?] Takeo asked as Tao tapped on his laptop.

"Getting you clothes, heh." He eyed Takeo for a few seconds, changing his search parametres. Takeo was wider than Chin-mae in the chest, but he stood taller than Chin-mae even though their torsos seemed about same length. "Do you have any favourite colours?"

[Favourite...?]

If Takeo said blue, Tao wouldn't be surprised.

[I'm not sure,] Takeo admitted. [But...I like the colour of the plants in the tank.]

Huh. "Green it is then!" Or maybe it was because Takeo was constantly surrounded by blue that he didn't want to see it anymore. ...Could Takeo even see blue?

A few more clicks and Tao added some items to his basket. "Okay, what else do we need?" Maybe a scarf would be good. People wouldn't look at Takeo weirdly if he had a scarf while it was raining, and that could cover half his face!

[How...does that work?] Takeo asked, continuing to eat his fish.

"The laptop or the site?" Tao threw in a couple more items, and oooh, was that on sale now? He'd been waiting weeks for that to go down! "The laptop's...mechanical." He didn't know enough of what Takeo knew to be able to translate all the details. "The site is like a really fast way of talking to someone. I tell the site what I want, and the site tells other people to bring the stuff I want here!"

Takeo studied the laptop. [It's that easy?]

"Basically," Tao said, nodding. "These should all arrive tomorrow. So!" he said, grinning at Takeo. "Do you have anything else you can think of that you'll need?

xOx

Chin-mae couldn't hear anything when he returned from work, and when he poked his head in, the lights were off and he couldn't hear Tao's laptop running. That was good. That meant Tao had actually gone to sleep. Maybe Takeo had convinced him to go to bed.

It was quiet inside and Chin-mae frowned at the empty sofa. He couldn't hear anyone else moving around...

Tao was sleeping alone in their bed. Which left only a few other places in the house, if Takeo hadn't left for some reason. Chin-mae doubted it, but he might have.

He poked his head into the bathroom and he paused at the doorway, unsure. The lights were out, and Takeo was in the filled bath.

"Takeo?" he murmured, walking over. Takeo was a merman who could breathe underwater so him being there shouldn't have any problems, but it was still unnerving to see a body just floating there, unmoving.

[Mm?] A splash, and Chin-mae breathed a sigh of relief when Takeo moved, sitting up to rest his arms on the edge of the tub. [Chin-mae?]

His eyes glowed in the dark, huh.

"Ah, sorry," Chin-mae said, shaking his head. "I was just making sure."

[Tao had offered the sofa, but this feels but this feels more comfortable.]

Chin-mae nodded. "Not surprised. Anyway," he said, taking a step back, "I'll let you sleep."

[Goodnight,] Takeo said, slipping back into the water again.

"Night."

Tao was still sleeping when Chin-mae got to their room and when Chin-mae climbed into bed, Tao turned towards him with a soft grumble.

"Are you actually sleeping or are you pretending?" Chin-mae muttered into Tao's hair, but Tao didn't respond, so Chin-mae closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

xOx

Tao woke up feeling better than he had the previous days and he stretched before getting out of bed. Takeo was up and huh, he must have slept through the deliveries, because Takeo was wearing new clothes, this time ones that fit him well.

"Yo, those are looking much better!" Tao said, getting something to eat.

Takeo moved an arm across his chest, his expression curious. [I can see why you wanted me to get new clothes. They're not as restrictive.]

"Feels nice, doesn't it?" Tao said as he opened up his laptop, double-checking what he'd done on it. "All riiight, so if that's all our stuff arrived, that means we're ready to hit the road! You wanna double check with me the route we're taking one last time?" It wouldn't hurt, and while they were on a little bit of a time crunch, Tao just felt better if their route lead them past as many bodies of water as possible for Takeo's sake. Even though it shouldn't do anything. It was better to be prepared for anything unexpected.

Smiling, Takeo nodded and moved to sit next to him.

xOx

"That should be the last of it," Tao said, his eyes roaming over the bags in the back of the car, "but lemme just check."

Chin-mae nodded as Tao pulled out his phone, muttering under his breath.

The lights in the streets had just started to come on, and Chin-mae watched the rolling clouds as they meandered overhead. "It shouldn't take us that long to reach the coast, but you think you'll be all right?" he asked Takeo, who bundled up in as many clothes as Tao could get him to wear.

[I should be. I've been fine this entire time I've been out the water — honestly, I think my biggest problem would be overheating in all these.] Takeo picked at the jacket.

Chin-mae grimaced. "Sorry about that, but we can't take any chances." It was still too easy for someone to peer through the window as they went past.

[I know.] The car moved a little as Takeo shifted. [I can take a few hours of a little discomfort.]

"And then you'll be home," Chin-mae murmured, his gaze drifting. He was glad Takeo would be back with his people again, but... He'd gotten used to Takeo's presence. He shook his head. It wasn't like they could keep Takeo locked up in their house all the time. It was bigger than the tank, but now that Takeo was bigger too, there wasn't that much difference. And compared to Takeo being in the sea with his own people... Yeah. It would just be unfair.

"Okay, we've got everything!" Tao said as he exited their house, making sure the door had locked behind him. "Let's go, let's go!"

xOx

Tao couldn't stop bouncing his leg as he leaned an elbow on the window, watching the scenery go by. "It really _has_ been a while since we've done this, huh?" Tao mused, the restless energy in him refusing to settle or let him sleep.

"Mm."

Tao turned to Takeo. "Hey, Tak-" He paused at Takeo's hunched form, hearing his quick breathing. "Yooou don't look so great." More like 'green around the gills' and if Takeo hadn't been wearing a scarf, Tao would have been able to check.

[Does-] Takeo huffed, taking in deeper breaths. [Does it always feel like this?]

Tao shared a look with Chin-mae through the rear-view mirror, their eyebrows raised. A merman getting motion sick? He hadn't expected _that_.

"Yeah, this is a pretty smooth road," Tao said. It could be a lot worse, but he wasn't going to add that. "I thought you were used to this?" The sea was constantly moving, wasn't it?

[The sea doesn't feel like this...]

He sounded downright _miserable_ and if this was what he was like after a couple of minutes in the car... Damn, this wasn't going to be a fun ride for him.

Chin-mae scrolled down the window on the passenger side in front of Takeo, letting in the cool night air. "Does that help?"

Takeo made a soft groaning noise. [I think... I think that's making it worse. I feel like my lungs are getting clogged up.]

Tao winced as Chin-mae closed the window again. What did people do for motion sickness?

"Try closing your eyes or look at the sky instead," Chin-mae said. "Don't try to look at the things close to us."

Takeo didn't seem to be getting any better and Tao turned around to dig out a bag because it sounded like-

"Hurk!"

Tao yanked one out and shoved it in front of Takeo, hearing the wet slap as he emptied the contents of his stomach all over it, feeling the car slow to a stop. A bit late, and they couldn't open the door anyway, in case someone saw Takeo.

"Ooof," Tao said, rubbing Takeo's back. "Yeah, that's not fun."

[At least I don't have more water rushing into my mouth,] Takeo grumbled, still trying to vomit when nothing was coming out.

Tao winced. "That's something I don't want to ever experience." At least Takeo could breathe through water, but maybe things got confused since he had two ways of breathing.

And he was going to stop thinking about that now, the thought of drowning will vomiting making him queasy.

Tao continued rubbing Takeo's until he stopped.

[I think...that's everything,] Takeo said, still panting.

"Sounded like it," Tao said, taking the bag from Takeo and knotting it. "You think you'll be okay now, or do you want to wait some more?"

Takeo grimaced as he leaned back against the seat. [I won't be able to be sick anymore, but I think my stomach would still want me to stay still for now.]

"Then we'll stay here for a bit," Chin-mae said as Tao nodded.

"I need to get rid of this first anyway," Tao said, and he dashed out, closing the door as quickly as he could.

It didn't take Tao long to find a bin and he threw the bag in, running back.

"I love my jacket!" Tao declared once he was back inside the car. He hadn't gotten wet in the slightest.

Takeo looked better, though his eyes were closed and there was a half-empty bottle of water in his hands.

[How don't you feel sick after that?]

"We're used to it," Chin-mae answered as Tao shook off what excess water he could.

"Heh, you don't have to, since you'll be home soon," Tao said.

[Mm, yes, I will be.]

Tao glanced over at the wistful tone. Did he...?

[Anyway,] Takeo said, [the faster we reach the sea, then the faster I don't have to feel like this.]

"Yeah..." Tao said as Chin-mae started driving again. It suddenly didn't feel like it was going to be a triumphant return.

xOx

The car was quiet after they started moving again, Tao sitting next to Takeo with a new bag ready, just in case. It didn't seem like it was needed, Takeo having dozed off a while ago.

"Guess it tired him out," Chin-mae murmured, keeping an eye on them both.

"Hopefully. That should mean he wouldn't be sick again any time soon." Tao peered at at the darkness. "Hey, we're getting close to a lake, aren't we?"

"Mm. Should be a couple of minutes."

"Should we wake him up?" Tao said, studying him.

Tao straightened when Takeo startled awake. "You okay?"

[Go!]

Chin-mae tensed, the urgency clear in Takeo's voice.

[ _Go_!]

"Hey, Takeo," Tao said, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder. "It's okay — it's just a dream."

Chin-mae frowned, squinting at the darkness. There was something ahead off the side of the road, but Chin-mae couldn't make it out.

[I'm not dreaming!] Takeo was panting again. [Can't you _feel_ that?]

Feel- Chin-mae's stomach dropped as the shape in front of him got caught in the headlights. "You fucking _kidding me_?" he hissed as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

It was made out of water, rising up maybe two stories tall, and it had to be from the fucking lake they had been driving towards.

It also wasn't moving, hovering there like a swaying wall.

Like it heard him, _waiting_ for them, the water crashed towards them. It didn't stop once it fell, Chin-mae _hearing_ the impact even over the rain, and it rose back up again, picking up speed as it roared towards them.

* * *

I originally had Takeo with hair that glows at the tip in the dark to help draw in prey, but I thought that might be a little too much, haha.

I realised that Takeo probably wouldn't use the term 'run', heh.

And aaahaha, I didn't expect that I'd written that much today. XD


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary** : This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.

He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as _fun_ though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.

Contains M-21/Tao.

Shorter chapter thanks to me needing to re-outline the scene, haha... Good stopping point though.

* * *

 **Washed Up  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

"What the fuck is _that!_ " Tao screeched.

"You think I know?" Chin-mae snapped, putting in as much speed as he dared with the slick roads.

Shit. He could try to swerve around and go back the way they came, but there was too much of a risk he'd end up spinning out and they'd end up crashed against the barrier.

Which meant they had to drive _past_ that wall of water before it reached the road and took up everything.

"Shit shit _shit_ -!" he muttered under his breath as they neared it, the wave looking larger with each passing second. It seemed like it was gaining speed to meet them and he heard Tao yelp.

"Chin-mae, what're you _doing_?"

"We can't turn around!" he said, feeling the impact of the water hitting the ground in his fucking _bones_ , the wave looking like it was figuring out how the fuck to move above water and shit, was it actually _intelligent_?

"And heading towards it is _better_?"

"Better than wasting time trying to turn!" They didn't have time. Not at the pace that thing was moving. And that was _fast_. It wasn't trying to move upright anymore, instead moving like a snake, sidewinding as it moved closer.

His blood was roaring in his ears, his heart feeling like it wanted to rip itself out his body and he was lucky one wrong move hadn't sent them careening into the barrier already.

Chin-mae's throat closed up as he gripped the steering wheel as tight as he could, the looming shape of the water drawing close, and shit, he wasn't sure if they were going to make it.

If they didn't, at least the car was going fast enough that it should go straight through. If the engine was still working after that was something else altogether.

He could hear Tao yelling something, but he was too focused on getting them the _fuck_ out of there to pay attention.

He was barely breathing as the thing neared, his gut knotted up so hard it was painful.

They were close enough now to see it literally was just a featureless wall of water with no distinguishing marks. Just a giant wall that was trying to kill them for no reason. Not that it mattered what it looked like.

The way it moved made it that little bit slower and Chin-mae was flooded with a brief burst of relief when they shot past it.

It missed them by a few seconds, Chin-mae not feeling the back tires grip the road as it roared past behind them flooding the road more, the car's momentum the only thing keeping them going forward.

He flinched at the screech of tearing metal as the barrier next to them twisted, the groan and the sudden darkness behind them as the road lights were ripped out of the ground.

It definitely had a solid form, and it was _definitely_ dangerous.

Tao's panicked yell told him all he needed to know about if the water was still chasing them and he glanced at the rearview mirror to see it twisting around to face them as it slithered out of the darkness.

They were fucked. It didn't matter they were gaining some distance from it now. They were still fucked.

That thing was going to grow bigger and bigger because of the storm either from the rain or just from the water that had collected on the roads. It wasn't going to _stop_ and it wasn't as if they could pray to Takeo's dad to stop storming the entire country when he couldn't even hear them.

Their fuel in the tank was finite and there was no fucking way they would be able to outrun _that_ on foot. They were only just managing in the car!

Chin-mae gritted his teeth at a thud that shook the entire car as another road light was smashed into and sent crashing to the ground.

It wasn't even _trying_ to get to them anymore, just causing as much damage as it could and fucking _bastard_ , it was trying to scare them. And it was _working_ , Chin-mae's nerves pulled taut, unsure what it was going to do next.

But the fucking thing was, it could catch up with them whenever it wanted. Because it was still fucking advancing on them and Chin-mae kept to the middle of the road as both barriers were ripped up with enough force to almost hit them. Which had to be the point.

They just... There _was_ no fucking plan, no fucking way for them to escape from this. They would keep going along the motorway until they they were caught or crashed, and if they _did_ somehow make it into the city, all that meant was everyone else around them got dragged into it and killed!

[Right!]

Chin-mae swerved that way without thinking and saw a lightpole zoom past where they'd just been, crashing so hard into the ground it stayed at the same angle it went in.

And aside from _everything else_ that put them at a disadvantage, the fucking thing could use _weapons_.

"Tell me when they're coming!" Chin-mae said, and shit, while they were on a straight road, he didn't want to risk being distracted by what was behind them in case he needed to react to something in _front_ of them.

"It's coming up!" came Tao's panicked cry, and Chin-mae swallowed, seeing the thing start following them again, two lamps held out like jousting lances.

Chin-mae couldn't tell if the thing was doing something as it moved so he could feel it through the car or if _he_ was the one shaking.

"Just tell me," he said, seeing the other two nod, his jaw hurting from how hard he was clenching it.

[Left!]

"Right!" Tao yelled a second after him, his voice shrill.

Fucking-! Both at once? Chin-mae chanced it and went left. As soon as the pole smashed through the ground, making the car jump as the road raised up at the impact, Chin-mae swerved right and flinched as the second pole thudded into the ground.

Chin-mae put on as much speed as he dared.

"The good thing is," Tao said, peering over the back of the seat, "I think it's stopped picking up projectiles."

"But it's still coming after us," he muttered under his breath.

"Yeah..."

Of course it was. The skin at the back of his neck prickled. "What's it doing _now_?" he demanded.

"Huh?"

[It...seems to have slowed down close to where the lamps hit,] Takeo said.

Picking them up again or something else? There were still lots of lights around that it could use, so why stop there?

"Think it ran out of juice?" Tao whispered, still peering at it.

"We're not waiting around to find out," Chin-mae said, intending to put as much distance as he could between them and it. "And how can it? It's _surrounded by water_."

"Maybe it's special water, like this is a special storm!" Tao protested. "They can't mix or something. Takeo?"

[Eh?]

"What do you think?"

Takeo didn't answer for a few seconds, still gazing out the back. [I think-]

Chin-mae sucked in a breath, feeling the rumble beneath the tires again.

[I think that's what it's doing!] Panic filled his voice and Tao scrambled away from the back.

"What?" Chin-mae demanded.

"It's tearing up the road!"

Tearing up the - _fuck_! Chin-mae's stomach lurched as the back end of the car tilted up with the road and he needed to get them out of there _now_.

He swerved to the side before the road was torn up, clenching his teeth as he braced when the car hit the ground. But it was better than being launched into the sky like a fucking toy and-

"Chin- _mae!_ Faster!"

He did as Tao told him to, seeing the road lurch towards them, far _far_ too close in his headlights as the thing yanked the road towards them.

They weren't as lucky this time, the road clipping the back of the car and sending them spinning. Chin-mae's head smacked off the window and the world brightened at the corners for a second.

[Chin-mae!]

He grimaced, wanting to clutch his throbbing head, but there was no _time_ and his hands were locked around the steering wheel and would have to be pried off first.

Which way were they-

"Fucking-" he wheezed, putting the car in reverse. They were _facing_ the fucking thing, seeing it advance on them like they were a mouse watching a snake heading straight for them.

"Don't like this _fucking view_ ," he said past gritted teeth and braked as he span the steering wheel.

Once they were facing the _right_ way, Chin-mae accelerated again, the car shuddering as the water crashed 'head first' into the spot where they'd just been.

"Too close too close too close!"

"I know!" They weren't going to-

Takeo yelped and Chin-mae hissed, seeing electricity dance over the dashboard.

All the lights winked out and the engine cut out.

The car died.

The car _fucking died_.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary** : This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.

He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as _fun_ though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.

Contains M-21/Tao.

Another short chapter, but this time because that's where I wanted to end it, haha.

* * *

 **Washed Up  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

"Are you fucking-" Chin-mae hissed, trying to start up the car again, but it didn't respond as the barrier to their right groaned as it was ripped up. Chin-mae could see the light bouncing off the metal as it twisted and snapped before it disappeared above them.

They were going to die. They were going _fucking die_ because his car-

"Chin-mae!" Tao yelped, pressed up against the window and peering up at the darkness above them. "I think it's got a fly swatter!"

Shit. Trying to control his breathing, Chin-mae nodded, bracing himself for when the barrier came crashing down on them.

Neither Tao or Takeo said anything, both of them squinting up at the sky and Chin-mae gritted his teeth, waiting as time ticked by second by second and still nothing happened. At this rate the car was going to roll to a stop before anything happened and maybe that was the _point_.

Chin-mae's temper flared, wanting _something_ to happen instead of the expectancy that something would. He would prefer having something to react to than being unsure when something was going to happen. "Is it going to-"

[Right!] Takeo yelled as Tao scrambled away from the window. [Go right!]

Chin-mae span the steering wheel, the car moving far slower than he wanted it to.

The barrier crashed to their left and Chin-mae wasn't sure how the windows held, hearing them rattle from the impact.

There was nothing he could do as the barrier swept towards them, and Chin-mae had just enough time to brace himself as the barrier smashed into their side. It sent them skidding through the space where the barrier used to be, and Chin-mae heard the others yell.

He sucked in a breath when the car kicked back into life again just in time for them to skid off the road through the space where the barrier had been and into the mud that was past it.

" _Now_?" Chin-mae hissed, trying to get the car to move. The car was running again, but the wheels were spinning out in the waterlogged mud, unable to get any traction. "Are you _serious_?" The car had finally started up again for them to be fucking stuck like sitting ducks!

"What's it doing now?" he demanded, only hearing more mud splattering uselessly everywhere.

"Not coming closer?" Tao squeaked.

Chin-mae shivered, feeling the ground moving again. Not in the way he _wanted_ it to.

[It's getting more lamps.]

Great. But it was better than it attacking them head-on. It using projectiles meant more chance of it _missing_. But why was it - He could think about it later.

They were still stuck in the mud though and Chin-mae gritted his teeth, trying whatever he could, but all that seemed to do dig the car in deeper. Or maybe it was the water that had a hold on them, sucking them further into the ground.

Chin-mae chanted a litany of swear words under his breath, not aware of ones he was even using, but else could he fucking do?

"It's gonna throw!"

"I can't-!" There was nothing he could do but glare at his dashboard and _will_ it to move, throwing every single bit of emotion he had at it.

The car lurched to the side, an almost hop, and they thudded onto solid ground. Chin-mae's frustrated anger dissipated into startled surprise as he stared, not understanding. Wha-

[Chin-mae!]

Don't think. Don't think about what the fuck just happened and just get the _fuck_ out of there first. He could have the luxury of thinking later when they were safe. If they could get safe safe from that thing.

"Chin... What...?" Tao said, his voice wavering.

"I don't _know_ ," Chin-mae bit out. " _Later_." They couldn't try to figure out what the fuck just happened when the thing was still attacking them!

The car rumbled under them and Chin-mae let out brief sigh of relief as it found the traction it needed and they thumped properly back onto the road.

He was too tense to flinch when the lamp hit, the car shuddering at the impact, but the car didn't die this time. That was what mattered.

"C'mon," he muttered under his breath. "C'mon..." The other two were quiet but he didn't risk glancing at them. "What?"

"I think it's actually stopped this time?" Tao whispered. "It ran out of juice."

"Takeo?"

[I think he's right...] Takeo said, his voice slow. [It doesn't seem to be moving, and look at what it looks like.]

"Yeah..."

Chin-mae frowned, risking a glance in the rearview mirror. It was a wall of water still, looking smaller as they increased the distance between them but...

"It looks a little thinner, doesn't it?" Tao whispered, like saying anything louder than that would anger it and make it come after them again. Not that Chin-mae blamed him, his own breathing seeming far too loud to his ears. "Almost like a snake now instead of-

"Okay, never mind!" Tao yelped and Chin-mae gripped the steering wheel. "It's gonna throw things at us again!"

Fuck. "But..." Chin-mae said, frowning. "It's not chasing us anymore?" Lightpoles being thrown at them was bad, but it seemed like it was a last ditch attempt when it couldn't reach them anymore.

There was a small pause. [Yes, it seems - left!]

Chin-mae swerved, the car jumping into the air for a second from the impact. He glanced at the pole from the side mirror. "I think its aim's getting better," he muttered. They were lucky none of those had hit yet. And they shouldn't now. So long as he didn't relax too early.

"Hah, yeah... It's had a lot of practice..."

Chin-mae snorted. "Is it still stopped?"

[Yes, it seems like it.]

"Good," Chin-mae muttered, just wanting to stop and get the feeling in his hands back, but he couldn't risk it. Maybe it was playing with them now, just pretending to be stuck to make them put their guard down before it struck. Now was the worst time to relax.

Tao let out a weak chuckle, half-collapsing against the seat but not straightening just yet. "So. What do you think the media'll say when people start commuting and see _this_."

"Gas leak," Chin-mae said, and there was a ringing in his ears that he hoped would go away. He wasn't sure where the answer came from, but his brain insisted on it.

"Really? We're in the middle of nowhere."

"Gas leak," Chin-mae repeated. "It would explain why one part of the road is torn up and the lightpoles are embedded in the ground." He wasn't even sure _why_ he was having this conversation but he latched onto it, needing something _else_ to think about rather than trying to understand or think about what had just happened.

"Not really... It doesn't... But close enough. It's that or a bomb, and who'd believe someone just put out a bomb in the middle of nowhere." Tao waved a hand towards their surroundings. He paused, cocking his head as he considered it. "Well, I guess unless it was to stop traffic and that's _definitely_ what that's gonna do. I have no idea how long that's gonna take to clear up," he finished, his voice quieter.

"There's still the other side of the road," Chin-mae said. Most of the damage was on their side of the road as far as he could tell.

"It'll still be bottle-necked," Tao pointed out, "but yeah. Could be worse."

Like them all being dead.

"It's still not coming?" Chin-mae asked, trying to not let that thought overtake everything.

[No.]

"Good." He wanted to close his eyes in relief, but he couldn't, not now. He could collapse when they were safely away from that monster. Wherever _that_ could be.

"Takeo?" Chin-mae heard Tao say, and glanced over to see Takeo pressing a hand to his head, his eyes closed.

[I'm...fine,] he said, his voice a little strained. [I just have a headache.]

Chin-mae winced. If Tao worrying about being caught breaking into the aquarium had given him a headache, _both_ of them panicking about them being attacked...

"After all that," Tao said with a weak laugh, "I'm not surprised. We'll try to think quiet thoughts from now on?"

If only because all three of them were going to conk out from sheer stress and exhaustion.

"We need to stop somewhere," Chin-mae muttered, glancing back at the rearview mirror. With his nerves shot as they were, he wasn't sure if he would be able to keep driving for the night.

"You've got nooo arguments from me," Tao said. "Just not a place that's near a body of water, yeah?"

Chin-mae snorted. "Of course."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary** : This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.

He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as _fun_ though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.

Contains M-21/Tao.

* * *

 **Washed Up  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

Tao staggered over and collapsed into the double bed as soon as Chin-mae opened the door to their inn room. Takeo followed after him and Chin-mae made sure the door was closed. It was late enough the receptionist had only glanced at Takeo and the quick make-up job Tao had done had been enough to not raise any eyebrows. Or to care that much.

The room had all they needed: beds and a bathroom.

Chin-mae went to the bathroom and poked his head in. "No bath."

" _Good_ ," Tao said with a groan. "I don't want to think any more about water coming out of that and trying to kill me in my sleep." He rolled over to worm his way under the covers. " _If_ I'm able to sleep tonight. ...Don't think I'll be able to sleep for the next _week_."

"I was talking to Takeo," Chin-mae said as Takeo wiped at the make-up. There hadn't seemed to an allergic reaction to it.

[I can sleep in a bed,] Takeo said, smiling at him. [And...I agree.] He sighed, his shoulders slumping. [I don't think I'd be able to sleep in water any time soon.]

Chin-mae edged into the bathroom. He peered at the sink for a second before tightening the taps as far as they would go. There wasn't much else he could do for that, but the toilet...

He eyed it, not wanting to step any closer to it. He strained his ears but it _sounded_ like a normal toilet. Just like they thought they'd been approaching a normal lake.

He stayed there staring at it before backing out again. They couldn't lock the toilet from the outside and they had one stool that was useless for pinning the door closed. So if something happened, they couldn't block it.

Chin-mae rubbed his wrists as he walked over to the double bed and Tao beckoned him over, waggling his fingers. He sat down next to Tao and exhaled as the other man started massaging his wrists. "Thanks," he murmured.

"You're thanking me?" Tao leaned into his shoulder, still massaging. "You're the one who saved our asses back there."

It didn't feel like it. More like an instinctual dream haze that was both so sharp and so fucking surreal to be believable. They'd been attacked by _water_.

"You sure I didn't imagine all that?" Chin-mae said, closing his eyes, now that he could.

"Heh. You can check out the car tomorrow."

Chin-mae grimaced. How obvious was the damage going to be? The car could still drive fine, but he didn't want to draw any more attention than they already had.

Chin-mae leaned back, feeling his muscles start to relax the longer Tao massaged his wrists, revelling in the peace.

"How's your head, Takeo?" Chin-mae asked. It had been a while since the attack, but maybe the headache had faded a little, now that he and Tao weren't screaming in his head anymore and they'd tried to shield their thoughts again.

[I'm sorry,] Takeo said and Chin-mae opened his eyes to glance at him. What-?

Takeo hadn't laid down yet, still sitting on the edge of the bed, his head bowed.

"What for?" Tao said, still massaging Chin-mae's wrist. "For having a headache?"

"Can't blame you for that," Chin-mae said, especially considering the circumstances and how loud he and Tao must have been.

Chin-mae blinked when he felt confusion that wasn't his own. Was that-

[It was my fault.]

Tao spluttered, wheezing a soft laugh. "I don't think any of us could have predicted we were going to be attacked by water!"

[But...] Takeo lifted his head to look at both of them. [It's because of me it happened.]

Tao's massage slowed. "Eh? How could it be?"

[It was attacking me,] Takeo said, his voice slow.

"You can't know that," Chin-mae said

Takeo stared at them both.

[Is being attacked by a giant wall of water normal here?]

Chin-mae stopped.

"Well..." Tao slowed his massage. "Not...really..."

"It's not something happens _period_ ," Chin-mae added. Unless it was something that was kept secret. Which...he wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Was there a group of people who knew merpeople existed and did what they could to make sure no-one else knew?

[Then it's because of me,] Takeo said, certainty back in in his voice. [I'm what's different from normal here.]

"You think someone wants to _kill_ you? Why?" Tao yelped. "Okay, you can breathe underwater, but that's a little hard to do when you've been crushed by so much _metal_."

[I don't know why someone would want to kill me,] Takeo said, sighing. [I just know that that's what they were trying to do.]

"...Hey," Tao said, and when Chin-mae looked over at him, he was frowning, his eyes distant. "Do you think... Do you think that's what happened at the aquarium?"

Chin-mae frowned as well, trying to piece it together.

"Like, the room was trashed," Tao said, running a hand through his own hair. "Water everywhere, but if that was the only room that was touched, and nothing else had been taken or broken..."

"It could be," Chin-mae said, mulling it over.

Chin-mae started when Takeo stood up. [I should go.]

"Eh?"

Takeo had already taken a few steps when Chin-mae lunged forward to grab his wrist.

[Chin-mae,] Takeo said, looking at him. He didn't try to pull away from Chin-mae's grasp. [I've put you both in danger.]

"And you'll get us out of it," Chin-mae said.

Takeo blinked.

Tao chuckled softly behind him. "Yeah, that's kinda the rule with me: if I drag you into something, it's also my job to make sure we get out of it."

Though the situations they'd had before hadn't been life or death...

Takeo stayed silent, still not trying to move away.

"Look," Chin-mae said. "We don't know who's attacking you or why-" And they might never know. "-but for all we know if we split up they'll still hunt us down since we've already associated with you."

Takeo looked stricken.

"Yeah," Tao said, taking a deep breath and his foot had started to jog. "Look what happened at the aquarium — if they were really after you and only you, they wouldn't have killed all the other fish in the room as well."

[Oh...] Takeo slumped, his hair blocking Chin-mae's view of his face.

"So there's not much point trying to split up," Tao said. "That's the way of getting killed faster. And it's not _your_ fault someone's trying to kill you."

[It could be,] Takeo said, his voice soft, but he sat back down on the bed. He sighed. [But until I remember everything, I won't know.]

"Well, of what we know about you so far," Tao said, "you aren't a killer, so it's probably not someone wanting revenge!"

Chin-mae blinked at the high chirping noise Takeo made, his shoulders shaking. It took Chin-mae a second to realise Takeo was laughing.

[Thank you, both of you, for everything.]

"Heh, no problem," Tao said.

Chin-mae yawned as he sat back down. "We should sleep." It was surprising he'd stayed up this long and hadn't collapsed yet.

Tao chuckled. "You think I can sleep when water could come in through the window or the toilet and kill us?"

"Not much you can do about that," Chin-mae said, drawing Tao into a hug.

"Yeah, I know..." Tao sighed into Chin-mae's shoulder.

Hm. When he had Tao's attention, he raised an eyebrow and then tilted his head back a bit.

Tao blinked and a second later, he brightened, nodding.

"Hey, Takeo," Chin-mae said, looking back over his shoulder, "do you want to come over as well?"

[Huh?] Takeo didn't say anything else, as if he was waiting for Chin-mae to explain.

[You...want me to be with you?]

"Yeah," Chin-mae said. "If you want to." After everything that had just happened, being alone would make things worse. "It's a big enough bed."

But...was Takeo all right with touch?

[I would appreciate that,] Takeo said. [Thank you.]

"Great!" Tao said, shifting back to give him more space. "The more the merrier."

Chin-mae shuffled up as well as he felt Takeo climb onto the bed, not sure if he should turn and lie on his back or if he should stay as he is.

Takeo didn't seem to mind, settling down after a few seconds.

It was a little weird having two people in bed with him rather than one, but Chin-mae was already drifting off, exhaustion dragging at his eyes.

xOx

Tao couldn't sleep. Which wasn't surprising in the _slightest_ , the events still replaying over and over in his mind. He reached over and held Chin-mae's hand, squeezing it. Chin-mae didn't react, already fast asleep, but Tao was glad he was still there and everyone was still _alive_.

He was either going to stay up the entire night or he was going to only fall asleep when he was completely exhausted.

He could play around on his phone for something to do rather than constantly thinking of being attacked while he slept.

At least he wouldn't feel anything if they were attacked.

Unless he woke up just long enough to struggle and still die.

...Great, thanks, brain. Now he _definitely_ couldn't sleep.

Rain beating against the glass used to be soothing to listen to, but now, Tao just expected the next sound to be something smashing through the glass. Tao didn't like having his back to it, but he didn't want to be _facing_ it either and staring at the water as it dribbled down the glass.

He squeezed his eyes shut and sighed.

He could hear someone else moving around, and _that_ wasn't Chin-mae. He peeked over and Takeo looked like he was sleeping, though there was a crease on his brow, his breathing a little sharp.

"Hey, Takeo," Tao said, reaching over to shake his shoulder. Chin-mae wouldn't wake up from that — he was used to Tao tossing and turning during the night.

The wind picked up, howling past the window, and really, Tao had seen a lot of movies. If there were any cats or dogs around, they would have been yowling or barking already and trying to leave the room.

But nothing was going to happen, right? He was just overthinking and jumping to conclusions. Except the last time Takeo had been like that-

Tao jerked when Takeo startled awake, scrambling back and hitting his head off the wall with a cry.

Tao flinched when he something banged in the toilet, the hiss of water following after it and oh shit oh shit this was _not_ happening, but he shook Chin-mae's shoulder anyway.

He didn't need to, Chin-mae already awake and scrambling upwards.

The bathroom door crashed open and uh. It was another mass of water, but this time it had a humanoid shape. Like Takeo's.

They almost looked exactly like Takeo. Aside from being made of water. But Tao could still make out the familiar markings along the skin, and their hair was fuller, almost curly, and it reached their mid-back.

Was this something different from before, or exactly the same?

The merperson's attention was on Takeo, ignoring Tao and Chin-mae (which Tao had to admit, he was a little grateful for).

[Who...are you?] Takeo asked, staring at them.

[Hmph,] the other merperson said, crossing their arms. [I see you can't recognise your own little sister.]

* * *

Aaaaand this is where I leave off for the moment. I want to have more time to outline what's going on and stuff, so I'll be trying to fill in the rest of the nano goal with one-shots.


End file.
